The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-12-29
A HOLE IN THE FLOOR.
HOW THE wILTBERGER WINE
VAULT WAS ROBBED.

|
but the Jury Didn't Believe It
cousin William" Unfolds Tale of
Golden's Wrong-Doings.
Tom Golden, formerly proprietor of the
Pulaski House barber shop, was tried in the
Superior Court yesterday for robbing the
Wiltberger wine vault last spring and was
convicted.
Golden and two others, William Dixon
and Adam Matthews, were arrested for the
robbery. Dixon was found with some
of the wine in his. possession and he con-
fessed. Golden was implicated and he was
arrested the same day and several dozen
bottles Of the wine found at his house. He
denied having stolen the WINE but said that
Dixon, who was his cousin, gave it to him.
| The details of the robbery were given in
the MORNING NEWS at the time it oc-
| CURED.
RICH OLD WINES.
| The wine was rare old Madeira, of vim
| tages way back in the sos, and was stored
in vault in the Pulaski House cellar. 1t
| formerly belonged to the Wiltberger estate,
| but part of it was bought some timeago by
Capt. j. k. CLARKE and Judge W. w. CHS
| holm. Mrs. Josephine Lowell, widow of
1
| The wine was worth s. and 50 bottle and
| there were twelve dozen bottles missing
when the robbery was discovered. Some OF
the wine was found unopened at Golden's
house. but a good part of it was gone.
| Golden had given a dinner party and haG
| drunk up dozen or more bottles anddhad
| given as much more away to his friends.
| Dixon was engineer at the Pulaski House
and he had lot of the wine stored away
| in his room.
GOLDEN INDICTED.
| Detective Wetherhorn worked up the
| case, and the evidence was so strong against
! Golden that he was indicted at the June
| term of court, along with Dixon and
| Matthews, for larceny from the house of
| goods over the value of $50 The case
was twice assigned for trial, but each time
| it was postponed.
| The court room was crowded yesterday
| when the trial came on. All the BARRIERS
in the city were there and the gallery was
| packed. Golden was represented by ex
Solicitor General Charlton and Henry Nc
l'Alpin, Esq. When the case was called Mr..
] Charlton asked for a further continuance
on account of the absence of one important
witness for the defense.
DELINQUENT WITNESS.
The witness was Robert Davidson, better
| known as kid, =" who was with Golden i'm
his shop when the wine was alleged TO have
been taken. kid had been seen early III
the forenoon, but he did not show
up at court. An officer was
sent out and afterwhile he marched
in with the wanted witness. Judge
Adams asked him why he did not appear
earlier, and the witness gave as an excuse
that he was drunk the night before, and not
having been notified at what hour he was
to appear, he had not been in a hurry. The
Judge evidently did not consider the ex-
cuse very good one, for he gave Davidson
his chance between paying a $50 fine or
going to jail for ten days.
SELECTING THE JURY.
There was considerable difficulty in get
ting a jury. The defense struck freely.
| Thirty FIVE jurors were called. Thirteen
| were challenged bv the defense and five by
the State, and f9ve went off for cause. The
twelve that were selected were Theo Roher,
G. +. Muller, Henry A. Ernst, Alex. NJ.
| Barbee John M. Asendorf, Isaac B. Fergu-
son, Alex j. Ready, Paul f. Masters,
Bernard Goode, Lemuel c. Downs, Patrick
L. Daley and J. w. Chandler.
Col. X. j. Davant, executor and trustee
of the Wiltberger estate, was the first wit
ness sworn. He testified as. to the owner
ship of the wine and its value, and to the
discovery of the robbery.
Capt. Clarke was the next witness, and
he also testified as to the ownership and
value of the wine, and he called the differ
ent brands which were named from the
vessels in which the wine was imported.
Nh. j. j. Sullivan, who was
proprietor of the Pulaski House
at the time Of the robbery,
and Detective Wetherhorn, who worked up
the case, testified in regard to the arrange
menU of the vault where the wine was
stored, and to Golden's arrest and the find
ing of the wine at his house.
WEAVING THE WEB
All of the forenoon session was taken up
in getting the case in shape to be handled,
and when the court met in the afternoon
the important evidence came out.
"Kid," who was counted as Golden'S
strongest witness did not testify very
strongly in his favor. In fact his testi-
mony was rather against Golden, One
or two other witnesses were sworn
and finally Golden was put on the
stand to make his statement
He told a very plausible story of how DIXON
led him down into the cellar one night and
offered him drink of wine, which
he accepted, and how Dixon afterward
brought up from the cellar a'whole case of
the wine and put it ia a bathroom III Golden's
shop. The next morning early Golden had
"Kid" take the wine in a clothes basket
to his house, and day or two afterward
gave dinner party, and dozen or so bot
ties of the wine were got away with. Col
den said that he had never been in the vault,
and didn't even know where it was
DIDN'T KNOW 1T WAS MADEIRA
He didn't know that the wine was old
Madeira He thought that it was some old
blackberry wine that had been left in the
cellar by the Goodsell Brothers when they
moved out Of the Pulaski four years ago.
He had no idea that Dixon had stolen it
and when the officers came to his house he
told them that there was the wine. If
it belonged to anybody else he did not
want it. His story was well put together,
and had it not been for other evidence 1t
would have been a card in his favor. When
he had finished his statement, Dixon was put
up, and then the story of the robbery came
out
HOW THE WINE WAS STOLEN.
Dixon said that Golden knew all about
the wine, and that he asked him to help
him get it out of the cellar, and he did.
He went down in the vault one night and
passed the wine up through hole i'll the
floor under washstand in Golden's shop
Golden took it and hid it in bath room
that night, and early the next morning
KID who was in the barber shop
when the wine was brought up through
the floor, took tifty-six bottles in clothes
basket to Godens house. Dixon said the
kid" borrowed saw TO cut the hole in
the floor, so that they could get the wine
through.